Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. This is a regular session of the Rome Common Council. The date is May 13, 2026 and the time is 7 p.m. Mrs. Campbell, please call the role. Councelor Sprace, present. Councelor Mortise, present. Councelor Fazio, present. Councelor Smith, here. Councelor Riley, present. Councelor Dury present. Councelor Spria excused. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty for all.

The invitation will be offered by the chair. Lord, grant us the spirit of unity and collaboration as we come together from diverse perspectives. May we listen with open hearts, speak with respect, and work as one for the greater good of all who call this community home. Amen. At this point, the meeting is now open to the public. You have the opportunity to appear before the council and present your views concerning city affairs. If you wish to speak, please step up to the back microphone, state your name and address, and limit yourself to five minutes. Also, please sign in on the speaker sheet so that will help us with the record. We are now ready for our first speaker.

Okay, you're done. Uh, it's only three minutes.

Good evening. I'm Bobby O'Brien. I'm speaking on behalf of the Rome Waterways and Trails Advocacy Group, President Nash, councilors, city representatives, and members of the community. As we have for the past two years, I would like to thank councelor Fazio for sponsoring this year's ordinance number 9868 and once again ask for your support authorizing the street closures for the arrival of the cycle the eerie canal tour participants. On Thursday, July 16th, Rome will be entertaining around 500 cyclists who are participating in the 8-day 400 mile event starting in Buffalo and ending in Albany. The event is planned, organized, and hosted by Parks and Trails New York, which awarded Trail Town status to Rome in 2023. One of the important goals of maintaining that distinction is engaging our community and increasing tourism. The welcoming block party has been so successful that Parks and Trails New York had a feature column about our event in their annual report and we've been asked to provide them an overview of this year's activities for their weekly newsletter that is sent to registered tour participants. The ordinance documentation provides the information about timing of street closures as well as a map of the block party area. You'll also be seeing marketing materials on Facebook, The Sentinel, and other media outlets. Thank you once again to everyone that supports not only the block party activities which includes the Rome area chamber of commerce, the Rome police and

fire departments and also everyone at Fort Stanwick's monument and especially the city's various departmental staff members with a special shout out to the community and economic development department. Danielle has been an instrumental leader. As I mentioned last year, this party is not just for the riders. It's for our community, all ages. We've extended the hours to 3:30 to 8:30 and increased the number of bands to three. Food and beverage vendors, crafts, and community service organizations will all be returning. In closing, the members of the Rome waterways and trails appreciate the city and our sponsors support which ensures the safety and success of this third annual event. We ask that you vote favorably for the street closures as described in ordinance 9868. Thank you.

Thank you, Bobby. It's a fun event for everyone, old and young. Next speaker, please. Is anyone else wishing to speak?

How you doing? My name is Larry Lindsay. I want to talk about the Fair Housing Act, which Rome cities is violating. You know, WD housing own 116 houses, rental houses. that make a million dollars a year. These are slum apartments which I continue to go to code to try to get them to go do an inspection and they keep refusing to do so. And one thing I noticed about code, there's no blacks working there, no Latinos. It's good old boys discrimination. You know, you would not see no blacks owning no houses in Rome. How is this in every apartment? Every house that they buy, they buy from the city. How is WD Housing able to buy 116 houses and blocking everybody else out for buying houses? You know, that is a discriminate discrimination against us. We can't buy no houses. You know, try to go to the auction, we can't get it, but WD housing got it. And these are slum apartments. Listen, they hurting women and children in them apartments. You know, I got a list of their apartments. These are dangerous apartments and they making a million dollars. Not just a million, a million dollars of DSS money, our tax money. A million dollars. That's what they making over there. And nobody wants to do an investigation. Nobody wants to go in these apartments and show how dangerous there is. I lived at 313 Sky A. There was a fire there that they covered up. Yes, water was leaking into a socket. Right there. On the second floor, there's no two-way outs. Right. Not only that, they sealed all the basement cemented. Put cement on all

the basement windows. If a fire start, guess what? You won't know until you hit the basement. But they get away with this. These people need to go to jail. Listen, either act on it or get hit with a class action suit. the county get hit with a class action lawsuit for real. And that's a promise. You can look my name up in Supreme Court and in federal court. You know, these are people lives that y'all got WD housing playing with. And because they got friends in this little community they got going on, not caring about our family, not care about the safety of our family. They care more about money than the safety of our family. You go right there on Spring Street. Two 44 Spring Street. Walk in the hallway. Just walk in the hole. You see a big hole coming down here. Just like See that line right there? That's what the hallway look like. Just like that line of a hole. You got mother and children living there. You got lead infested apartment. Y'all supposed to sign a document to fight against lead. How are y'all doing it when you're letting D WD housing get away with it? They got children living in mold infested apartments. This is my last time coming by myself. I'm going to make flyers and we all going to come in here. Like I said, if the county want to get hit with a class action lawsuit, we could do that. I got nothing to lose. If y'all want to protect WD housing and a bunch of criminals over there, be my guest. Lead poison apartments is a federal offense. Especially that they know there's no way in, excuse me, no way in hell you could walk in this lady house and not see all the chip paint everywhere.

Y'all going to sit here and wait till they kill somebody. And that's what they gonna do. That's guaranteed facts. Like I said, they buy it from y'all. They only put a band-aid on it and rent it out to guess what? People that's getting public assistance. And all the public assistance do just get them money. Don't do no inspection either. That welfare office need to be shut down, too. They don't even do inspections. I wouldn't ask them. They got mad at me for asking. Inspections need to be done. I understand that they getting rid of some of y'all abandoned houses, but these people we cannot trust. These are dangerous people and they do not care about nobody child or nobody else but their pockets. And trust me, they making a million dollars. If you got 116 houses, they making a million dollars a year. And you mean to tell me you can't fix them up? You that greedy? Come on. It's time for them to go. Either leave the town or go to jail. I prefer jail for them. Thank you.

Thank you, Larry. Next speaker, please. Does anyone else wish to speak? Public session is closed. The chair will entertain a motion that the reading of the minutes of the preceding session be dispensed with and that they be approved. So move. Councelor Smith second and councelor Sprace moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Opposed? Motion carries. Uh communications. Mrs. Campbell.

Stay Events LLC of 255 East Dominic Street has notified the city clerk's office of its intent to obtain a liquor license. The following organizations have submitted notice of an adult use cannabis retail dispensary license applications to the city clerk's office. Copper City Bud LLC of 307 Adam Street and Air City Cannabis LLC of 706 Erie Boulevard West. The following financial reports for quarter ended 33126 have been received and filed in the city clerk's office. Rome Historical Society, Romeart Martin Community Center, and Senior Citizens Council of Rome.

Thank you. Uh report of city officials, report of counselors in general city affairs, reports of committees. Onward to resolutions. Resolution number 61 authorizing the city of Rome treasurer to close capital projects and to make appropriate accounting entries. Move it. Councelor Darcy second. Councelor Riley moved and seconded. Any discussion? Councelor Dury.

President Nash, members of the council. Um I just wanted to make everybody aware that um uh City Treasurer Adams, um thank you for doing a great job um getting these capital projects uh closed. Um this is what I told you that we were working on in the previous session um at the previous council meeting and and um there were four of them. There were are going to be several more coming up in the next few months. This is all part of the audits that that the city had has been under and we looked at those audits and these are some of the recommendations that they made over the years and and we are continuing to do uh uh our our financial due diligence is and keeping things as clear in the record as we possibly can. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Dersley. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Resolution number 61 is carried. Resolution number 62 establishing a 2026 Rome Youth Common Council and offering recognition to accepted students. Move it.

Council Dury Council Spice moved and seconded. Any discussion? Council Dury. President Nash, members of the council, I would like to uh amend resolution number 62 um to add u be resolved that the youth council 2026 including Gabrielle Cely, Samuel Cole me, Jordan Roser, Tatum Butler, and Brooke Sutton be added to um this this uh resolution. Um these are the five members that are over here right now um from RFA junior and senior class. Um they've been great students and they're they we already had our first meeting today and and I hope it went okay. Um so I'd like that a motion to amend.

Second second by by councelor Spice. Any discussion? Congratulations and thank you for taking on this this endeavor. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Resolution number 62 as amended is carried. Resolution number 63 authorizing a subreient agreement with the county of Onidita for the distribution of Onidita County's award under New York State's discovery grant program for fiscal year 2023 through 2024. So move. Councelor Mortis. Second. Councelor Spra moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say I.

Oppos. Resolution number 63 is carried. Resolution number 64 designating the common council as lead agency for the state environmental quality review seeker as it pertains to the Nessentia neighborhood project proposed planned development and classifying the action as a type one action. Move it. Councelor Dury second. Councelor Riley moved in a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Oppose. Resolution number 64 is carried. Resolution number 65 authorizing the city treasurer and payroll manager to attend a Tyler Tech Munis seminar in Lions, New York. No cost. So move. Council Mortise second. And council 5.

So moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. Opposition number 65 is carried. Ordinances. Ordinance number 9867 authorizing the creation of a residential plan development district PDR 7900 through 7902 turn road move it. Councelor Dur second. Councelor Riley unanimous consent. Councelor Mortis second and councelor Spray. Orange number 9867 has been moved and seconded. Unanimous consent has been moved and seconded. All those in favor of unanimous consent say I. I. Opposed. Unanimous consent is carried. Is there any discussion? Council Dury,

President Nash, members of the council. Um, this uh ordinance is an ordinance that is to help Nessentia Health get their uh senior housing senior housing senior housing development with several different phases up and running at a good level. Um what it is intended to do is to create a cohesive planning unit so the whole thing can move forward as one as opposed for them having to go continually to come back to to adjust and through the various planning boards and and different departments that would have to go through. Um so that's what this one is for. Um, if anybody else doesn't want to speak, um, uh, Count President Nash, at this point in time, I would like to move to table this legislation so it can go to the planning board for review.

Seconded by councelor Burice. Uh, President Nash. Yes. Sorry, President Nash. Members of the council, uh, if if councelor Dury could just clarify that it's going to be referred to the planning board for their review and also for the planning board to hold the public hearing. President Nash, I would also like them to have a public hearing added to that. Thanks. Okay. So, it's been moved and second. All in favor of tableabling say I. I. Or number 9867 has been tabled. Warrant number 9868 authorizing the closing of streets for the Erie Canal bike tour and block party.

Move it. Councelor Fazio. Second. Councelor Riley, Councelor Smith, and Councelor Mortise. Ord number 9868 has been moved and seconded. Unanimous consent has been moved and seconded. All those in favor unanimous consent say I. I. Post unanimous consent is carried. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Ordinance number 9868 has been carried. The chair entertain a motion to a motion to wave rule six and ordinance number 9869. So move second. Councelor Mortise I mean councelor Sprace and councelor Mortise. All in favor say I.

I. Oppose ord number 9869 authorizing a sixmonth moratorum with respect to the establishment installation and construction of battery energy storage system within the city of Rome. Any discussion? Councelor Dury, President Nash, members of council, I usually don't talk this long. I apologize. Yes, she does. We have to has to be moved and seconded. Correct. Yeah, second unanimous consent. Mortis and Space 9869 has been moved and seconded. Unanimous consent has been moved and seconded. All those in favor unanimous consent say I. I

oppose. Unanimous consent is carried. Discussion. Councelor Dery. Okay, here we go. Um, thank you.

This this ordinance is a wave rule six. We understand um that this is not the normal process of going through um legislation. And it the council and the laws and rules committee um under um councelor Spacece and councelor Fazio met this past week with codes and the mayor's office in discussion of um some what I think everybody will understand is a pretty important situation that is is really new to to not just Rome but to to the United States as a whole. And what this relates to is um battery energy storage systems which are big giant batteries sometimes like truck size. Um and and these batteries the goal of the batteries are to to um buy energy at a low cost in the evening, sell the energy at a high cost in the afternoon. Um that's what makes America great. Um, what we're going to do here though is put a moratorum on that because of the the possible locations where they would have to be near a substation. Um, and and they're just we just don't know anything yet. If they're near a substation, are they near residential? Are they commercial? Is this a utility? Is this a So, we've got to get definitions of what these things are for our our um our our purposes in our city codes. Um we need to figure out setbacks as far as how far away they're going to be. Um is there going to be a necessary screening to keep them away from the neighborhood? Um and then more important things such as um the fire department would need to be able to have a plan in in case one of these uh units or several units catch on fire. And we all know how um uh electric batteries catch on fire and like to stay

on fire. Um so we need to have an organized plan along those levels. And and finally um the another major part with this, if those of you that were here remembered the solar panels and we had a moratorium on them for for a little while to discuss other things like um decommissioning. Um we all know we all have batteries um in our cell phones that go bad quicker than we want to. um and and when these batteries go bad, what happens to them? Are they going to leave them there? If they did, then it would be the city's cost. So, if we can put some legislation um together, um it would help us protect the city's interest and the taxpayer interest. So, for those reasons, this came out now so it can get immediately onto the planning board for review and public meeting. Um and and um and and that's why the because the planning board is is meeting before we come back into session for our next meeting. So, this was imperative to get it on now. So, it's it's we're trying to be as open. We will have um ability for the public to talk about it, but we felt this was something important that we do now to make sure um the taxpayers and everybody in Rome is safe and secure. Um that's all I have to say. But we are tableabling this.

So I would like to I would offer to table it to table it to refer to to refer to the planning board for discussion and a public meeting. A public hearing a public hearing. Thank you. First we got to second that. You can second the tableabling of it. Then we'll just Can I speak on it? Yeah.

Second. I just wanted to say thank you president. Um to piggyback off of councelor Dury, the bottom line here is protecting our residents, protecting our businesses, um to make sure that we know what we're getting ourselves into. So this is six months moratorum and it gives us the opportunity gives codes the opportunity to look into everything before you know we start getting these coming into Rome and and being put up and like you said kind of like the solar farms. So this will give us some time to really look at things and to put things into place before something becomes a headache. So that's why we're doing this fast and we're doing this. Thank you.

Anyone else? This is moved and tabled. All in favor of tableabling ordinance number 9869 say I. I oppose. Ordinance number 9869 has been tabled. Chair entertain a motion to adjourn. So move. Councelor Smith. And councelor Mortise. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. We are adjourned. Thank you all for coming.